People of the modern world are still being exposed to trace amount of asbestos even to this day. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had banned the use of asbestos in gas fireplaces as well as in wallboard patching supplies since the 1970s. These products were found to release excessive amounts of asbestos into the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also put out a ban on all new uses of asbestos in 1989. However, all asbestos uses that had already been established prior to this date are still legally allowed. Therefore, people today are still being exposed to asbestos, albeit not as extensively as the people living during the earlier centuries were.
The U.S. EPA has stipulated that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos. In keeping with its regulatory laws against the use of asbestos, the EPA has set forth an asbestos concentration limit of 7M fibers per Liter of drinking water. This holds true for fibers with at least 5 um in length. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has also put out their own limit, which is lower than the one set by the EPA. For an 8 hour shift in any workplace within a 40 hour per week timeframe, OSHA set the asbestos exposure limit at 100,000 fibers per cubic meter. Although exposure to asbestos cannot be totally eliminated, these limits that have been set by authorities help ensure that exposure to such are at its minimum.
The best screening tools to use to determine whether a person has been exposed to asbestos are a thorough and directed physical exam and a simple chest radiograph. Levels of asbestos fibers can be detected in the urine, stools, saliva and mouth washings. Tissue biopsy can reveal high levels of asbestos fibers and can confirm exposure. These procedures however cannot determine who among the individuals who screened positively for exposure to asbestos will develop asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases. The long latency period between exposure and the earliest manifestations of symptoms makes matters worse. Studies have shown that the average latency period between exposure to asbestos and the development of lung cancer is about 15 years. For both malignant mesothelioma and asbestosis, it has been shown that the latency period is even longer. This may even reach up to 40 years.
Smoking in combination with asbestos exposure has been shown to significantly increase the likelihood of a person developing cancer of the lung. A smoker who has history of asbestos exposure is as much as 90 times more likely to develop lung cancer as compared to individuals who have not been exposed and who are non-smokers. Studies further show that individuals who have been exposed to asbestos and who have quit smoking for more than 5 years effectively decreased their likelihood of developing lung cancer by as much as half. Individuals who work in professions that have the highest risk for asbestos exposure should be made aware of this fact and should therefore be warned not to smoke.
People are still being exposed to asbestos today. Even with the regulatory laws in place to keep exposure at its minimum, people should take it upon themselves to follow precautionary measures to ensure that they are safe from the hazardous effects of asbestos.
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